After, and the highlight of the day, Eliza Griswolddelivered the keynote address. She spoke about her work as a journalist examining religious interaction and divides, read from her poetry, and read from and discussed her book, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam. Although much of her writing on the subject reads as stark, she said her hope–here very real hope–lies in the many examples of families coming together in efforts to build community and survive. She said that in the many, many conflicts blamed on religious divides, there is never lacking a strongly disruptive political component. We spoke for a brief moment afterwards, and she reiterated her very real, practical hopes for a peaceful future, mentioning practical interfaith work in areas like Nigeria, where families are looking at each other as humans and neighbors first, before pointing out each others’ differences.

This conference recalls to mind one of my favorite verses of the Qur’an, 49:13:

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other)). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).

I am also reminded Arun Gandhi related that, when his grandfather was asked his faith he said, “I am human first.”